Eat, sleep, play: health behaviors and their association with psychological health among cancer survivors in a nationally representative sample

BACKGROUND: Cancer survivors are able to live much longer today than in the past due to advances in treatment. The promotion of health behaviors is important to address among cancer survivors. Not only can health behaviors reduce the risk of comorbidities, but they may also be key to improving psychological health among cancer survivors, such as psychological distress, perceptions of one’s general health, and distress of cancer mortality (i.e., cancer fatalism). Our overall goal is to 1) determine which individual health behaviors (e.g., fruit consumption, physical activity, and sleep) are associated with psychological health among cancer survivors and 2) determine if the number of health behaviors engaged in is associated with better psychological health among cancer survivors. METHODS: Using data from the HINTS 5 Cycle III survey (N = 856 cancer survivors), we compared whether participants who met guidelines for seven health behaviors (e.g., fruit and vegetable consumption, moderate physical activity, sleep duration) had improved psychological health. Multiple ordinal regression models controlling for sociodemographic variables were used to determine if meeting more recommendations was related to psychological health and then specifically which behaviors were of greatest importance to psychological health. RESULTS: Meeting guidelines for sleep quality and moderate physical activity was associated with higher general health and meeting guidelines for vegetable intake and better sleep quality was associated with less psychological distress. Although the associations were not significant, cancer survivors who met more of the health behavior guidelines reported higher general health, lower psychological distress, and less distress about what could be done to lower one’s chances to get cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Meeting the guidelines for individual and multiple health behaviors is associated with favorable psychological health among cancer survivors. The findings can contribute to the development of health behavior interventions that focus on multiple health behaviors to improve psychological health and quality of life among cancer survivors.